How a captive agency is wired end to end
One agency, one messaging registration, one dialing pool, two comp ladders, and an org chart that deliberately does not control who sees which leads. The map an admin needs before changing anything.
Who this is for
Admins, and anyone about to change a member's rank, upline, brand type or contract model without knowing what else moves.
One tenant, one registration
A captive agency is a single tenant that owns everything shared: the telecom account, one 10DLC brand registered under the agency's EIN, and one campaign that every shared agent joins. Agents present under the agency's name rather than their own.
The field that attaches a person to all of that is their SMS brand type, set to Inner Circle. It is the difference between a member who inherits the agency's registration and one who is expected to build their own.
That single registration is what makes onboarding fast. It is also a single point of failure — if the campaign record is missing, every new shared agent's number claim falls through to a guess.
Two kinds of phone number, and they are not interchangeable
DIALING numbers live in the agency's pool and are assigned to reps for outbound calling. They are managed centrally, in bulk, on the dialer screens.
TEXTING numbers are per-rep and are claimed on the SMS number page against the shared campaign. One rep, one texting number.
A rep can have one and not the other, and each absence fails differently: no dialing number means they cannot call, which they notice immediately; no texting number means the AI has nothing to send from, which they may not notice at all.
Compensation: two ladders, not one
Ranks are per line of business. Health and life are separate ladders with their own rungs, and a producer holds a rung on each independently — which is why the member form has two rank fields rather than one.
The rungs themselves are your agency's, defined on the comp ladder screen, in whatever shape your agency actually has. The top rung is the house level. If a ladder has no percentages recorded against its rungs, the ladder is structure only and the money is being decided somewhere else — worth knowing before you tell anyone their rank means a specific number.
The org chart does NOT control lead access
This is the one that surprises people, and it is deliberate.
The upline tree answers 'who is under me' — recruiting, contracting progress, overrides, downline production. It is the money and management axis.
Whose book you can open is answered by ASSIGNMENT and nothing else. Being someone's upline does not give you their leads. There is a separate per-person switch that grants downline visibility, and it is off by default.
So 'promote them to manager' and 'let them see their team's pipeline' are two different changes. Doing the first and expecting the second is a common and quiet disappointment.
Two things are both called captive
Keep these apart or you will make a change on the wrong axis.
The TELECOM shape — captive means the agency absorbs the cost, everyone shares the agency's number and brand, and agents present as the agency. This is what decides which setup notices a rep is shown, and it is why a captive rep is never nagged about telecom or compliance.
The CONTRACT model — who holds the producer's carrier contract. Agency-held covers both LOA and captive; they are the same money shape, and captive adds exclusivity. Independent means the producer holds their own. This is set per member, with an agency-wide default for anyone unset.
An agency can be captive on one axis and not the other. Neither implies the other.
The AI, and the two switches in front of it
The AI works leads autonomously on the agency's numbers. Two switches gate it: an agency-level AI SMS switch, and a per-rep 'AI handling' toggle that decides whether it may work THAT rep's leads. Both have to be on.
Neither of them says anything about HOW a lead is worked. That belongs to the workflow's AI SMS step. The rep-level switch is deliberately the only AI setting at rep scope, because how a lead is handled should not depend on who happens to own it.
What onboarding a person actually touches
Adding a member writes their role, both ranks, their upline, their SMS brand type and their contract model — and nothing else. It does not give them a number, a calendar, a licence, a carrier appointment or an AI that will work for them.
Each of those is its own step somewhere else, which is why 'they're in the system' and 'they can work' are so far apart, and why the checklist in the admin onboarding article is longer than the invite form.
How this differs by setup
Solo agent You run everything yourself.
Captive agency The agency owns the numbers, the A2P brand and the bill.
Independent agent You're in an agency but buy your own number and register your own EIN.
How to check it worked
- The agency has exactly one shared campaign recorded, and you can name it.
- Every active member has a brand type that is not 'Not Set'.
- Every producing member holds a rank on each line of business they write.
- Downline visibility is on only for the people you intended, and you can say why for each.
- Every rep who takes appointments shows a connected calendar.
Common mistakes
- Treating the upline tree as a permissions model. It is not; assignment is.
- Reading the telecom sense of 'captive' as the contracting sense, or the reverse.
- Assuming a dialing number and a texting number are the same thing.
- Setting one rank and leaving the line of business the agent actually writes undefined.
- Turning on agency AI SMS and expecting a rep's leads to be worked without their own toggle on.
- Quoting a rank as a percentage when the ladder holds no percentages.
Related
Where this lives in the app
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